Thank you, worship team, and good morning, everyone. Thank you, both of you. Let's try it again. Good morning, everyone. Hey, thank you. I'm glad you're out there. We come now to our study of God's Word, and this morning we're going to pick up the theme that we were talking about last week in times like these. And think today, how should we then live, if in fact these are the last days?
To get to that subject, though, I want to tell you a story about a driver, a young man who was wearing a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and a YSL tie. Sounds like the guy you saw out there in the lobby this morning, right? He leans out the window and he asks the rancher, if I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?
The rancher looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, and he looks at his peacefully grazing herd and he calmly answers, well, sure, why not? The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to a singular Razor V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the internet where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location, which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image had been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a Microsoft database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his BlackBerry, and after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his high-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer. And finally, turns to the rancher and says, you have exactly 1,586 cows and calves. To which the rancher said, that's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves. And so he watches as this young man selects one of the animals and looks rather amused, actually, as the young man stuffs the animal into the trunk of his car.
Then the rancher says to the young man, hey, if I tell you what you do for a living, can you give me back my calf? The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, okay, why not? The rancher says, you're a consultant. Wow, that's correct, said the young man. How did you guess that? Oh, said the rancher, no guessing required. You showed up here even though nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew to a question I never asked.
You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are. And you don't know a thing about cows. This is a herd of sheep. Now give me back my dog. Well, you know, we live at a point in history in which a lot of people think themselves to be very smart and advanced and sophisticated and technologically savvy. But the sad fact is they are also ignorant of the most important things, including the times we live in.
As we saw in our study from 1 Timothy chapter 3 last week, hello Dan, it's good to see you. I saw you last week but I didn't get a chance to say hello. Good to have Pastor Lagase back with us after some kind of difficult heart surgery. Last week we started in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and we talked about this theme in times like these. We asked the question, is it the last days, to which we absolutely emphatically said what?
Yes, these are the last days and we know that from the Bible because the Bible says all of the time from the first coming of Christ unto the second coming of Christ is the last days. And what we know at this point is that the last days are 2,000 years at least in length. But we also said that as Paul writes these words in chapter 3, he seems to be pointing ahead to something else. For Paul himself was already living in the last days. But he seems to be pointing ahead.
He doesn't know how far ahead. It could be in Timothy's lifetime. It could be 2,000 years. But he says in times ahead, things are going to get really tough. He says in the last days, times will be terrible. The word literally means hard to deal with. And as we saw last week, that word terrible is found only one other time in the New Testament. And that's in the Gospels where it describes the demonized men of Gadara.
And so the use of that term here suggests that the end times, that is the last days of the last days, will be times that will be demonically energized. And because of that, society is going to go through a terrible decay. In 18 descriptives, he talks about that. And he says that basically good is going to become evil in the minds of people and what's evil is going to become their value, what is good. It's going to be a tough time to be alive in the last days of the last days.
And he says the religion of the time will go along with this. He says people will be religious. They'll have many forms of spirituality. They will be on many journeys to know the God of their choice. But the fact is that they will not come to know the power of God because they reject that knowledge. They're looking for spirituality in all of the wrong places. I believe that we are seeing the last days of the last days develop before our very eyes.
I told one man in the last service as we were chatting afterward that when I was a child or a young man, I knew these things would come to pass. But at that time I had no idea how these things would come to pass because the world that was then is so different than what is described here. And in other texts of prophetic scripture. But now I can see how things can happen. We see a world that politically is being set up for a global system.
We see a world that is being set up for a global economic system as well. Does it alarm you when people in Washington who are supposed to know these things do not understand what's happening in our economy? And they seem to be poking into the dark to try to figure out what to do to rescue the dollar, rescue the American economic system, to rescue what's left of it. And very prone to turn it seems towards socialistic kinds of ideas. Our world is being set up religiously as well.
The last week or so there was a meeting sponsored by the United Nations at which they were talking about how to get the religions of the world on the same page. In addition to that, Breitbart.com, a news source, talked yesterday about a website that was launched on Friday, two days ago, with the backing of Technology Industry and Hollywood Elite. It's urging people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions. There's a scholar that is heading this up.
It includes people like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, known here in the Silicon Valley, and Hollywood Elite like Forrest Whitaker and Cameron Diaz. They're pouring a lot of money into this effort. The chief task of our time, they say, on the website, is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony. Well that sounds really good, because we do need peace and harmony in the world.
The problem is they're trying to find a religious common denominator to achieve this, which will exclude the claims of biblical Christianity. It must, by the very nature of what biblical Christianity is, an exclusive message that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, that the Bible is the word of God, and so forth. But there is this search on for a religion that can melt the differences between the major religious groups and bring peace and harmony. How do we respond to times like these?
We could do what Elijah did. He went to a cave. He pulled it in on himself basically, and he said, it's enough. I'm ready to die. God come and get me. I can't take it anymore. And all of us at times, when we're going through difficult things, feel that way. It's enough. It's enough. But the Apostle Paul points Timothy and us in a different direction, as he describes in the times like we live in. He says there are some things that we ought to do.
Here's how a Christian ought to live in times like these. First Paul seems to say this to us, follow faithful examples. Look at verse 10 of 2 Timothy 3. You, however, Timothy, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings. What kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra? Go back to Acts chapters 13 and 14. You read about this.
There were mobs who were after Paul's life in the city of Lystra, which was Timothy's hometown, you know. They actually stoned him to death and dragged his body out of the city, and God miraculously raised Paul from the dead. Those were the kinds of things that he suffered, and he points toward them, the persecutions I endured, he says. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. We all need models in our lives.
Timothy, Paul was certain, was going to go through tough times, and he says, I want you to remember the model that I've set before you, Timothy. They were close, you know. Paul had led Timothy to Christ. He says, remember what I've gone through. You know all about me. Follow me. The word no here in the first sentence, however you know, you follow near me, is the idea. You know what my life has been like. I want to ask you, who are your models when you go through tough times?
Who are the people that you look to and say, boy, if they can do it, I can do it? We all have to have models. If you're passing through a tough time today and you don't know who's gone through a tougher time, and you say, I'm ready, it's enough. I've had it. Perhaps the guy that I'm going to talk to you about on the screen here in this video can be an example for you in your tough times. Well now let me invite a Munate parish rest. He needs to enjoy your life.
Even certain things are still present in your life that don't make sense or form the rules. They're not right there. O heavenly salvation! Quicken your 등. Ti com giveth praise! Even stronger than rain To be at your side All my fears and failures I feel my life again I give my life to follow Everything I believe in Now I surrender I surrender I surrender My God is mighty to save He is mighty to save The next time you think you've got it tough, think about Nick. Tough times. We all need models.
The idea in the word know also is to trace out. Do any of you remember tracing paper? Any of you old enough to remember that? We'd have to get a tablet for school that was a tablet of paper that was very thin, almost onion skin type paper. And we would use it for tracing. The idea in the word know or follow after is trace the outline, Timothy, of my life into your life.
We all need those people in our lives around whom we can trace the outline of their faith and their endurance and what they've been through and because they can do it, we can do it. When times are tough, follow godly examples. Secondly, Paul goes on to say, when times are tough, put Christ at the core of your life. Look at the next couple of verses in chapter 3.
He says, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. A Christ-centered life. Have any of you ever ridden on a Segway? Do you know what a Segway is? One of those personal transportation things. I've never been on one myself. They look like the perfect adult toy to me. I think they're rather expensive though, like most adult toys.
How is it that those things are able to remain stable and upright? Why don't you fall over when you step up on it? They only have two wheels. Well, the answer is in their high-tech balancing system, which is a series of high-tech gyroscopes. Because at the core of those machines, they have the gyroscopes that keep it oriented. You and I need Jesus Christ at the core of our lives in tough times, so that we remain oriented when the pressure comes against us. How do we remain stable?
How do we remain upright and not be crushed by times like these? The answer is Jesus Christ. Living godly in Jesus Christ, God-centered in Jesus Christ. That brings persecution, but Jesus Christ keeps us stable and secure in the midst of hard times. He keeps your life oriented when your life is under pressure. That is true of people everywhere.
And today I want to show you a brief clip that will highlight how other believers around the world who are living Christ-centered lives are under pressure. I want you to be encouraged by the example that they set for us as we move into a period of time that is going to become increasingly difficult for people like you and me, who place Jesus Christ at the core of our lives.
Let's remember, along with thousands of other churches around the world this month, the persecuted church in this clip from Voice of the Martyrs. Imagine, Islamic soldiers force your ten-year-old son to gather wood for a fire. The soldiers pressure him to convert to Islam. When he refuses, he is thrown on the burning wood he collected and left to die. They told me I would be released if I became a Muslim. I told them that was not possible. I am a Christian, so they threw me on the fire.
Your son escapes, but the scars remain a reminder of his sacrifice. Imagine, your teenage daughter goes to Bible camp. On the second day, the students are attacked. One of the attackers secures her hand behind her back, while another holds a piece of broken glass to her stomach. She is told to deny Christ. I did not answer him, so he pressed the glass harder against me. Do you believe your God can help you, he asks? Dripped with fear, she cries out, Help me, Lord, I do not want to deny you.
Imagine, your pastor has refused to register his church with the governor. During the service, he is dragged from the church and beaten by the local police. When the officers find a Bible hidden in his shirt, he is beaten with it. After returning home, I felt pain all over my body. It was almost numb at the beginning, but later it became so painful that I could not sleep. It is the fifth time he has been arrested. If he is caught again, the police say they will kill him.
Every day, thousands of Christians are persecuted for their faith. Hundreds are martyred, about one every three minutes. They are not heroes or statistics, they are families. In over 40 nations around the globe, our family is assaulted for their testimony of Jesus Christ. In most instances, the persecution could have been averted if they had simply denied Christ. But they didn't, and they won't. In Sudan, an Islamic army set on jihad or holy war has systematically targeted Christians.
Death and suffering can be seen throughout the countryside. Countless Christians are being displaced within their own country. Fleeing from persecution, they have lost everything, often arriving at refugee camps with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. In spite of heavy persecution, the church in Sudan continues growing at astonishing rates. Many of the believers bear the scars of their faith, but they also bear a testimony to God's faithfulness.
Over 500 churches have been destroyed in Indonesia. On the island of Ambon, Christians have been massacred in a so-called religious cleansing by radical Muslims. Facing increased persecution, pastors in Jakarta have encouraged their congregations to stand firm, confident that their suffering is a prayer to the coming revival. With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, many have hailed its defeat. But Christians in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, or China would disagree.
Hmong villagers have been imprisoned in Vietnam and Laos after converting to Christianity. Some have had boiling water poured down their throats for simply possessing a Bible in their own language. The Hmong tribe is the largest in Southeast Asia, numbering 10 million. Meeting secretly in homes, more than 2 million have recently committed their lives to Christ. The persecution facing our brothers and sisters is not a human tragedy. It's a spiritual reality facing the body of Christ.
We may not be able to stop the attacks, but we can ease their pain. Through prayer, encouragement, and practical assistance, we can fellowship in their suffering. We can show them that they are not forgotten. It's hard to ignore their pain after you hear their crying. When we put Jesus Christ at the core of our lives, He's the one who gives us the strength to endure hard times. Whatever may come to us in the last days, when He's at the core, He will keep us stable and secure.
Now the third thing that Paul says to Timothy in chapter 2, and to all of us who are living in times like these, and that is to continue, continue in the Holy Scriptures. Look at verse 14 of chapter 3 where he says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have been sent. And as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it.
And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly, what? Equipped for every good work. Continue in the Holy Scriptures. This book is unique among all the books of the world, because it is the God-breathed Word of the living God Himself.
How many of you wives wish your husbands would talk to you more about what they're thinking? That's two or three of you. And I know it represents about 100%. You know what your husbands are thinking? Why doesn't she read my mind? I said it 15 years ago. I haven't changed it. Why should I say it again? Husbands, our wives can't read our minds. No one can read your mind, and no one can read the mind of God either. In order for your thoughts or my thoughts to be known, we have to articulate them.
And to articulate them, we take a breath of air, and then we expel that air over our vocal cords, up through our mouth, through our teeth, our tongue, our mouth, over our vocal cords, up through our mouth, through our teeth, our tongue, our lips, and we form words. And those words become then the expression of our thoughts. We breathe them out. And that's what the Bible is.
The words of the Bible are the very breath of God coming out, telling us His thoughts about us, and about the world, and about the last days. And Paul says Timothy continued in the Holy Scriptures, and he points to at least two blessings of the Holy Scriptures. In the first place he says, when you learn them, they will make you wise to salvation. Now Timothy had learned the Holy Scriptures from his mother and his grandmother.
As a young boy, just a toddler, they began to teach him the Scriptures, so that when the Apostle Paul came to his city and proclaimed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, this young Jewish boy, this young man by this time, understood how Jesus fit into the Old Testament and was the fulfillment of it. And he placed his faith in Christ. He had learned the Scriptures, and they made him wise to salvation. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by what?
The Word of God. It is so important to teach our children the things of God. I've heard parents say, I don't want to push religion on my kids. I want to leave them neutral so that they can grow up and learn for themselves. How foolish is that? Because it is when a child's heart is young that it's pliable. And God instructs us to tell our children the Scriptures when they're young.
How important it is that they be in Sunday school, how important it is they be in student ministries, where they're hearing the Word of God, but that's not enough. It has to be in the home too. And that's where Timothy heard it. But the second blessing of the Holy Scriptures is this. When you continue in them, they equip you for every demand. We do not know what will be demanded of us in times like these. We don't know what we're heading into.
But most of us have the feeling something's coming. Am I right? The Holy Scriptures, if you continue in them, will prepare you for whatever demand comes upon you. This word equip means to put into order. It is a word that is used in Hebrews of the preparation of Jesus' body in the womb of Mary. When the Messiah says, a body you have equipped for me, you have prepared for me. You and I are facing tough days ahead, I believe this.
And it is the Holy Scriptures that will prepare us for what is coming. And so how do you live in times like these? Continue in the Holy Scriptures. Paul then goes on to point us in yet another direction. As he begins chapter 4, he says, In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. And then he lays it out. But notice what he does here.
He says, Timothy, tough days are coming. Remember what's coming. Besides the tough days. What's coming, Paul? Number one, the appearing of Christ. This word appearing was used in those Roman days of those times when the emperor would visit a city. And the retinue would come and say, the emperor is here, the emperor of Rome. And he would enter the city for everyone to see him. The word literally means the outshining. The apostle Paul points us to the coming of Christ.
That there is a day coming when he will appear. You see the tough times ahead are not the end of the story. They're the transition to something that's far better, which will be brought by the appearing of Christ. Secondly, he says, what's coming is the kingdom of Christ. You see, when Christ comes, he eventually will establish his kingdom on the earth. And then we will have the harmony and peace that the world longs for now and looks for, but all in the wrong places.
For only Jesus Christ can bring that kingdom of harmony and peace to the world. When you go through tough times, remember Jesus is coming and when he comes, he's going to bring his kingdom. And thirdly, when he comes, he's going to bring judgment. The judgment of Christ is ahead. And when you suffer at the hands of evil people, remember this is not the end. They must one day stand before Jesus Christ and give account of themselves for what they do to his people.
So when you pass through tough times and you wonder how do I live in times like these, remember what's ahead besides the tough times. The appearing of Christ, the kingdom of Christ, the judgment of Christ. And because of that, you, like Paul, like Timothy, can endure the tough times. That brings me to the last thing I want to talk about as we move into chapter 4 and verse 2. Where the apostle says in essence here, in times like these, what you need to do is to carry out your God-assigned duties.
Now what he's saying here is to Timothy, who's a pastor, but it applies to all of us. Notice what he says, I give you this charge. Here are your duties. Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number. Notice that struck me last night as I was reading it again.
A great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. Isn't itching ears kind of makes you want to do this, doesn't it? What their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away, they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside as a consequence to myths, false Gospels, false ideas, mere myths and stories, the Gospel of prosperity, the Gospel of self-esteem, the Gospel of positive living. He's talking now about people in the professing church.
And he's saying that in the last days what's going to happen is that many will turn away from sound doctrine. And they will go after all of the kinds of messages that make them feel good about themselves. So they can go away from church feeling happy. So that they can think positively about the world. And Paul says in those days I want you to remember that your God assigned duty is number one, number one to broadcast the Word of God. Preach it. Proclaim it. Get it out there.
There used to be a day when people planted crops by broadcasting. You know what that means? You'd have a sack of grain and then you would put your hand in and you would throw it out. Later it became mechanized with little gadgets that you would pour it into a sack and then you would turn a handle and there would be a mechanism to scatter the grain in front of you. That was called broadcasting the seed. You and I wherever we go are to be broadcasting the seed of God's Word.
He goes on to say, but you keep your head in all situations. He says here keep a clear mind. The word literally means be free from wine. Now it's intended metaphorically here but what's the meaning of it? Well wine elevates your mood. And if you drink too much of it, it will cause you to lose control of your mind. You won't think right. And so he says do not become intoxicated by this age. Do not get trapped into the ways of thinking that are part of the world system in the last days.
Keep a clear mind. Think God's thoughts. That's our duty. Thirdly he says endure hardship. That is endure tough things. They're coming. And fourthly do the work of an evangelist. In other words tell the good news. Tell it. Folks we have the only good news the world has in times like these. You turn on the television you'll be depressed just listening to what's on television. Am I not right?
The Bible, God's Word is the only good news there is in the world because it provides for release from the slavery to our hang ups and our habits. It provides for forgiveness of the guilt that weighs us down. It gives us a hope and a purpose for this life. It tells us that beyond this life there's a heaven to come. That's good news. It lifts our eyes above times like these. So he says tell others the good news. Tell them.
And he says discharge the duties of your ministry. In other words keep your God assigned duties. God assigned duties. Carry them out. So how do you live in times like these in the last days of the last days? The apostle has just told us all how to live. We take we do well to take heed to it. There were ten young ladies who were assigned a job by the groom.
He said I want you to take these torches that are soaked in oil and I want you to be ready when I come back because then I want you to light the torches and lead me in procession to where the bride is. And so they went out and the bridegroom was longer than they thought he was going to be. In fact they all fell asleep. And then someone said he's coming the bridegroom is here he's coming. And so they jumped up and five of the ten had thought to bring enough oil for their torches to last.
And they lit the torches but five of them had not done that. And so they said to the other five give us oil so that we can join you. And they said we've only got enough for ourselves and they went on. Jesus told that story and it goes a little further but he concludes the story by this. He says be on the watch for you do not know the day or the hour that the bridegroom is coming. We don't know folks. And so we need to be busy about the duties God has given us.
We need to be living our lives as God tells us to in times like these because he's coming and he may be coming very soon. Do you know him today as your Lord and Savior? And if you do are you living your life the way he tells you to in times like these? Because let me tell you it will make a difference when he appears how we live and whether we're ready. Beyond the alert he's coming. He's coming soon.
Father I pray that this message will come into our hearts today to instruct us and to encourage us in tough times like these. We thank you that you are the one who has given us the promises and you are the one who will fulfill them when you bring your son. And he brings his kingdom to this earth. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.